Mikel Arteta insists that the team must retain some perspective and focus on our strengths, as we look to bounce back from successive defeats.

We go into our Champions League quarter-final first leg match away to Sporting CP on Tuesday night, on the back of losing to Southampton in the FA Cup at the weekend, and the Carabao Cup final disappointment against Manchester City before the international break.

It’s the first time all season we have lost successive games, indeed it’s the first time we have gone two games in a row without winning, but the boss says it’s important to retain the elements of our game that have put us in such a strong position this season, when we return to European football in Lisbon. 

“Have some perspective, [realise] how difficult it is, what we've done up to now,” he said in the pre-match press conference. “And then feel that pain, feel that emotion, and use it to be better and to improve. 

“We were very clear in what happened, the reason why it happened, watching the game two times, we didn't deserve to lose that match, but this is football and we get punished for things...